Cars heading for fall showrooms will be at least 70% cleaner

Major automakers this fall will begin selling cars that produce at least 70% less pollution than vehicles now in showrooms. Under a plan approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the new models will be sold in 12 states from Virginia to Maine. And, starting with 2001 models, manufacturers will sell the cleaner cars nationwide. Engineers are lowering the emissions in 1999 models by using new catalytic converters, air and fuel controls, and electronic technology. They will place converters in tail pipes as close as possible to the engine. Sensors in the exhaust stream will monitor continually the ratio in the combustion chamber. An optimum ratio of 14.7 parts air for every one part of fuel will be maintained automatically.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

Kaspersky Labs indicated at its February meeting that cyber attacks are far more sophisticated than previous thought. It turns out even air-gapping (disconnecting computers from the Internet to protect against cyber intrusion) isn’t a foolproof way to avoid getting hacked. And Kaspersky implied the NSA is the smartest attacker.

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